Tristwich

Way of the Warrior

Staring upon the glowing blue words as they stretched out before him, Uric Densaw wondered about what he might gain from this venture. He wasn't one for fighting in a tournament, but there just wasn't all that much to be gained in this place either. Sure he had established himself as a powerful wizard and the envy of many, but was it really worth such an extensive and draining tri-

“Uric Densaw! You are under arrest for multiple counts of treason and espionage, with warrants out for your head from governments all over Valucre. Open up now or we will be forced to break in.” Hmmm, it seems providence has provided a reasonable justification for a hasty getaway. As much as the prospect of being executed multiple times for the victimless crime of stealing secret lore sounded, he had better things to do. Mainly join this little tournament tournament being held in the vast reaches of the ether.

“Oh yes I shall let you in shortly.” He said as he snapped his fingers, his armor magically appearing upon his body along with a host of other essentials packed up in a burlap sack. “Just need to finish up this little experiment of mine first.” A shame so many of these books wouldn't be able to make the trip with him, but at least he was able to make his copies and put them on the crystal tablet he had enchanted just for this occasion. Can never be too careful when you are so unjustly accused of thievery.

“We will break down this door!”

My they were eager to catch him, Uric thought for a moment, shrugging as he went about setting up the spell circle needed to open a portal. Even for the magically inclined of Valucre, he always felt he was somewhat ahead of his time, and his journeys had proven as much. Wherever he went, he found many of the experts in the field of the arcane to be rather...unstudied in so many things. It seemed to him that they just weren't very skilled in the ways of magic like he was. Oh well, at least he could finally get out of this constricting planet and on to bigger and better things.

From the stairway he heard the sound of wood breaking, a high pitched whine of a spell activating, some cursing and finally the sound of a conflagration. It wouldn't be long before more would show up though, which is why he needed to get going and get out of here while the bodies were still smoking. The runes etched upon the scales of his armor began to glow, and the portal was being constructed faster than any wizard on the planet could accomplish by themselves. As the vortex of blue energy swirled before him, the wizard gave a small sigh into the bronze metal of his helmet.

In a way, he truly meant what he said about missing this crazy old world. There were wonderful sights and some of the people who lived here were genuinely wholesome. However it seemed that he had grown beyond what this place would allow of him, so he needed to go someplace less restrictive. Already he had to drain the mana from most of the magical artifacts he possessed as well as most of his magical batteries. If things kept going the way they were, then there is bound to be no more magic left in this planet at all.

Taking his last steps on this planet, Uric would cross the threshold into the portal, and emerge on the other side into a strange lobby. With the magic fading away on the scales of his armor, Uric came off as any old warrior might. Sure he was a little mismatched with plated gauntlets, plated greaves, scaled legs, scaled torso and a bronze helmet, but magic was more practical than fashionable. Besides it may just confuse the hell out of the competition, something that he thought might be worth a laugh or two.

“Now to figure out how this place works, ah a receptionist, splendid.” From the looks of things competition was sure to be fierce. Good thing he could be just as fierce himself, and he has the knowledge to make it work.

Way of the Warrior

Staring upon the glowing blue words as they stretched out before him, Uric Densaw wondered about what he might gain from this venture. He wasn't one for fighting in a tournament, but there just wasn't all that much to be gained in this place either. Sure he had established himself as a powerful wizard and the envy of many, but was it really worth such an extensive and draining tri-

“Uric Densaw! You are under arrest for multiple counts of treason and espionage, with warrants out for your head from governments all over Valucre. Open up now or we will be forced to break in.” Hmmm, it seems providence has provided a reasonable justification for a hasty getaway. As much as the prospect of being executed multiple times for the victimless crime of stealing secret lore sounded, he had better things to do. Mainly join this little tournament tournament being held in the vast reaches of the ether.

“Oh yes I shall let you in shortly.” He said as he snapped his fingers, his armor magically appearing upon his body along with a host of other essentials packed up in a burlap sack. “Just need to finish up this little experiment of mine first.” A shame so many of these books wouldn't be able to make the trip with him, but at least he was able to make his copies and put them on the crystal tablet he had enchanted just for this occasion. Can never be too careful when you are so unjustly accused of thievery.

“We will break down this door!”

My they were eager to catch him, Uric thought for a moment, shrugging as he went about setting up the spell circle needed to open a portal. Even for the magically inclined of Valucre, he always felt he was somewhat ahead of his time, and his journeys had proven as much. Wherever he went, he found many of the experts in the field of the arcane to be rather...unstudied in so many things. It seemed to him that they just weren't very skilled in the ways of magic like he was. Oh well, at least he could finally get out of this constricting planet and on to bigger and better things.

From the stairway he heard the sound of wood breaking, a high pitched whine of a spell activating, some cursing and finally the sound of a conflagration. It wouldn't be long before more would show up though, which is why he needed to get going and get out of here while the bodies were still smoking. The runes etched upon the scales of his armor began to glow, and the portal was being constructed faster than any wizard on the planet could accomplish by themselves. As the vortex of blue energy swirled before him, the wizard gave a small sigh into the bronze metal of his helmet.

In a way, he truly meant what he said about missing this crazy old world. There were wonderful sights and some of the people who lived here were genuinely wholesome. However it seemed that he had grown beyond what this place would allow of him, so he needed to go someplace less restrictive. Already he had to drain the mana from most of the magical artifacts he possessed as well as most of his magical batteries. If things kept going the way they were, then there is bound to be no more magic left in this planet at all.

Taking his last steps on this planet, Uric would cross the threshold into the portal, and emerge on the other side into a strange lobby. With the magic fading away on the scales of his armor, Uric came off as any old warrior might. Sure he was a little mismatched with plated gauntlets, plated greaves, scaled legs, scaled torso and a bronze helmet, but magic was more practical than fashionable. Besides it may just confuse the hell out of the competition, something that he thought might be worth a laugh or two.

“Now to figure out how this place works, ah a receptionist, splendid.” From the looks of things competition was sure to be fierce. Good thing he could be just as fierce himself, and he has the knowledge to make it work.

Ecetopia: Rzail: Karnorouri’s Pillar

@Dark Light

The dwarf had a seen a lot of crazy things in his life, but flying people wasn't exactly one of em. Of course he wasn't so much flying as he was dropping down like a big heavy rock. Still, he killed a whole wagon full of the undead bastards, so he could forgive him for such an unorthodox entrance.

Everyone was making a fuss over having to escape, and the dwarf needed that fuss to get his head straight. Mindlessly killing undead filth was well and good, but there was a time and a place for everything. If he kept going now like some fool, he was liable to die before he claimed this place for the Ashen-Hammers, and that just wouldn't do! With his orders given by the stranger in the crazy get up, Zharak did what he did best.

He got to killing some zombies.

"Grak'Go'Roke!" He screamed out as he threw down one of his grenades towards an advancing host of undead. As it exploded, many of the bastards not destroyed immediately were set ablaze, and as it happened, fire spread quickly among rotting flesh. Charging forward with his shield in front of him, he ran to the cyborg as quickly as he could, trying to pull him up as the fire spread throughout the rank and file. Those that were all bones didn't catch easily, but the ones that had flesh were stupid enough not to notice the fire until it burnt them to ashes.

"Time to go!" He said in his heavy dwarven accent, pulling up the once falling man by the collar. "Gods yer heavy! Think ya might want to lay off the sweet rolls, Eh?" No time for making jokes, as a blazing zombie was charging straight for him. With one swing he broke open its knee and watched it flail on the ground as the fire consumed it.

"Its only gonna get hotter until we get into that cairn, lad, so lets get moving!"

Tristwich vs Typhon

As the leg cam towards her body, Annabelle stayed in her stance, keeping her legs braced for the eventual impact. When it was coming towards her midsection, she brought down her blade so that his foot connected with the flat of her blade. The force of the movement caused her to be pushed back, but she did not wish for him to have easy access to his weapon. Using her left hand to push against the other side of the blade, she would push back against her opponent.

"Good move, now watch this!" Once more her body exploded in golden psionic energy, a Mantle of Awakening activating a Memory of Courage. Taking a step forward she would do a lower right to left slash against Odum's legs, going for his unarmored knees. With her enhanced speed and strength, there was a good chance a knee was going to get sliced open, if not completely severed by the force. A warrior like Odum required his legs, so she would do all she could to cripple those legs.

tristwich vs Everett

@Everett

My bad I keep having trouble remembering to do that when I put up the thread. I'll try to have it changed so it is ranked.

Looking for Another fight, this time with more dudes prepared!

@SpawnMeme

Sure thing. What character were you thinking of using?

Tristwich vs Typhon

An eager opponent, one that she felt may have been a little too eager to get the fight started. Such a bold move as throwing your weapon was dangerous, especially if you had no other weapon as your back up. With the weapon hurtling towards her, Annabelle side stepped to her right, the halberd sailing past and clattering to the ground several feet behind her.

As Odum came charging at her, golden psionic energy exploded out of her body. This was the physical representation of her use of a Mantel of Awakening on a Memory of Jubilation, augmenting her speed so that she could better fight this man. He looked strong, but her training would see her through on this day, that and her physical augmentations. As Odum came charging towards her, she would prepare her next move.

Keeping to her stance, it appeared as if she was going to attempt a thrust into the upper torso of her opponent. Such an attack was sure to do some damage, either a piercing of his lung, or nicking an artery, or even going through the wind pipe. What mattered now was waiting to see what Odum would do, as he wasn't quite close enough to be in range of her strike.

GCA Interviewing Center

Interview with Drifting Pollen
January 19th, 2018
OOC interview

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When did you first begin fight writing?

I started in early 2015, on another forum. Signed up for a tournament, got in some fights to practice before the first round, and ended up enjoying it enough to go looking for more opponents.

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Who was your greatest inspiration when it came to wanting to write out fight scenes?

Wildbow, author of Worm. The fights in that series involve a lot of interesting, well-thought-out powers used in really cool and creative ways. For me, that's a large part of what makes writing fights with people so fun: you can come up with a bunch of intricate abilities and then do all kinds of crazy shit with them.

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Were you taught your craft or were you self taught?

Self-taught. Never had a mentor or anything, just did fights and then... did more fights.

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Have you ever gotten into a grudge with someone over a fight? (Names need not be used)

Yes, actually. One time on a smaller forum I was fighting a guy's character and he kept trying to weasel out of all damage, at one point taking a massive hit and just saying it did nothing. Eventually the admins got called in, and they of course called him out on this and said he had to take damage, which made him salty as heck. He also for some reason got really offended at in-character jabs and taunts, even though I explained to him straight-up they were part of the roleplay and directed only at his character.

Of course, after the fight he remained pretty grumpy about it, so we had a grudge for a while, both IC and OOC. At one point I had my character show up as a spectator to a tournament he was in, and started calling his character rude names and taunting from the sidelines. This, of course, royally pissed him off, and he called in the admins again. However, since all my taunting was purely in-character and wasn't particularly nasty (it was meant to be funny and for most people came across as such), they told him to shut up and deal with it.

In the end even he had to admit that the whole grudge thing was a good laugh, and OOC we put aside our differences and forgave one another. IC though we kept the grudge going, forming a rivalry between our characters that continued through later fights.

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How do you feel fight writing has effected your skill as a role player?

I wouldn't say it's affected my skill at regular RP much. Most roleplaying is based around collaboration and building storylines- you get better by improving your writing, learning to make good settings and plotlines, and working together with other players to create something everyone can enjoy. Competitive fights are almost the opposite: writing usually needs to be clear and technical rather than artistic, there's often no plot other than 'let's beat each other up,' and you're actively trying to fuck up every plan the other player comes up with rather than helping them along. They're very different styles, and practicing at one won't necessarily help you with the other.

That said, writing fights has changed the way I RP somewhat. For one thing, I'm not afraid to throw my characters into situations where they're likely to get injured or killed, since I do that all the time in the arena. I also like to play around with unusual or interesting powers, and come up with ways to make the most of them in the story. There was one group RP I signed up for on here a while back where I submitted my character and the GM asked me what I was going to do with her power, since it seemed kind of useless. I then told him some of the ways I planned to use it, at which point he promptly asked me to nerf it so I didn't curbstomp everything.

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Has there ever been a point you thought about quitting for good when it came to combat writing?

Nope. At any given point since I started, I've always been involved in at least one fight or tournament somewhere.

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Who would you say you want to fight the most?

Probably @darth or @lithfangel. I got in fights with both of them before but never got to finish due to RL time constraints on one side or the other. Would be nice to battle each other properly at some point, though who knows if it'll ever be possible.

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Which fight would you say has the most significance to you?

Johannes vs. The Bull, for three reasons:

- Firstly, the guy I was fighting had been battling some other people in the same thread, which ended with them getting in arguments and leaving in a huff. I then proceeded to come in and have a civilized fight with him that we both enjoyed, with only one OOC argument that was peacefully resolved between us. We even ended up doing some more fights and threads together later on. It was almost a case study on how not being a dick can help these things go better for you, which was nice.

- Secondly, the fight itself was completely ridiculous. The power of attacks kept on escalating, the surrounding terrain was obliterated in various awesome ways, and the whole thing culminated with my character pulling off the most insane plan I'd ever written. The whole thing was just so much fun to write.

- Thirdly, it was apparently a good read as well. I had a guy message me some time afterwards saying he'd read the fight and that it had inspired him to join the forum it was on and try out some fighting himself. I've felt proud of a few of my fights in the past, but this one probably takes the cake because of that.
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Do you feel like you could continue fighting in this current community climate?

Absolutely yes. Fighters quit or get busy with life, but there's often new blood to replace them, and when an arena on one forum suffers a dry spot I can almost always find more battling going on somewhere else. Maybe the community could get better in some ways, but it being like it is won't stop me from carrying on.

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How do you feel things could improve in the Arena board?

More players, more active moderation, and regularly scheduled tournaments/events. It's in a fairly good spot right now with one tournament going on and another getting started with Rilla involved, plus a few new players poking their heads up, so here's hoping things continue on this upward trend!

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Which character have you had the most fun writing with?

Tough question. I'm the type of person who makes so many characters I can barely remember all of them, and each one has been fun in their own way. Assuming you're talking about characters I've written fights with, and if I had to pick one... I'd say Toma Schrei, my tiny psychotic vampire. She's ruthless, fights dirty, and has a power that lends itself well to both quick surprises and carefully planned combinations of attacks, which makes her super interesting to play around with both in competitive fights and in story RP.

GCA Interviewing Center

Here in this thread I will be conducting interviews on a weekly basis with the different writers on this site and sometimes their characters. It will be weekly just like the GCA Analysis Reports though maybe more erratic depending on who is willing to let me interview them.

Every other week I will be interviewing a role player on the forum that is considered part of the Arena community. For the weeks I am not interviewing a role player, I will be interviewing someone's character for a bit of IC fun. Each I hope will be informative and insightful in their own ways.